Generally speaking, a revolver of conventional design comprises a stock formed with a grip, a frame mounted on the stock and provided with a barrel, and a cylinder swingable on the frame to allow the chambers of the cylinder to be successively aligned with the barrel.
To this end the barrel is located in line with the upper chamber of the cylinder and a pivot is formed for the cylinder close to a lower point thereof to allow the cylinder to swing out of its window in the frame for unloading of spent cartridges and reloading with bullets.
The firing point or axis, therefore, is generally located somewhat above the trigger and the stock at a considerable distance from the grip so that the recoil moment, i.e. the recoil force multiplied by the distance from the grip, is considerable.
This causes the barrel to lift, resulting in inaccuracies of firing and also represents a considerable force couple which is applied as a torque to the lower portion of the frame and especially to the transverse member thereof which must withstand this force couple.
As a consequence, the frame members which are subject to the force couple must be made relatively massive to avoid deformation of the frame caused by firing.
This, in turn, increases the weight of the firearm and the problem of rapidly aligning it with a target.
Conventional revolvers frequently utilize part of the lower transverse member as a fulcrum for the trigger and/or to support a mechanism which restricts the rotation of the cylinder, i.e. indexes the cylinder for firing and against rotation in an inactive condition of the weapon.
Such arrangements tend to reduce the rigidity of the lower transverse member still further so that when the force couples mentioned above are applied during firing, increased distortion is possible.
Here again, it is necessary to increase the thickness of the lower transverse member beyond an optimum thickness and this in turn means that the spacing between the cylinder above this lower transverse member and the grip will be greater. Furthermore, since the barrel diameter is more or less fixed by the number of cartridges which are to be accommodated therein, if one utilizes conventional numbers of cartridges per cylinder, one cannot correspondingly reduce the diameter of the cylinder so that the uppermost cylinder chamber and hence the cylinder and barrel must be even further spaced from the grip. This increases the lever arm over which the backlash or recoil force is applied to an even greater extend and thereby further accelerates the rearward and upward force components during firing.